Cyprus deported 6,800 people who were residing on the island without the legal right to immigration, since the beginning of 2024.
According to a police announcement, the last forced return flight took place on August 20 in coordination with the EU’s Frontex agency.
This was the ninth time Cypriot authorities took part in a Frontex deportation operation this year.
Police said that during the corresponding period last year, the total number of deportations from Cyprus amounted to 5,977.
Cyprus has taken measures to manage what its government has called a migration crisis, as the country records among the highest rates of registered first-time applicants for asylum in Europe.
Among the policies the Republic of Cyprus has implemented is temporarily suspending asylum applications from Syrian nationals.
International organisations such as the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) have accused local authorities of breaking international law by pushing asylum seekers back to the buffer zone.
This has reportedly led to over 70 people being stranded in the UN-patrolled demilitarised zone during heatwaves.
The Cypriot government has repeatedly stressed that it does not want the buffer zone to turn into an “immigrant corridor” and has sought to shift the blame to Turkey and UNFICYP which it accused of facilitating the entry of people into government-controlled areas.
The U.N. human rights office stated earlier this year that based on evidence it has gathered, Syrian refugees who fled the ongoing Syrian civil war are facing gross human rights violations such as torture and abduction on their return to Syria, while women are subject to sexual harassment and violence.
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